[35]The ultimate grow-bag.

感谢收听,期待你对本期节目的评论留言哦～ 2017.4.29 Economist Science and Technology The ultimate grow-bag To save children born prematurely ['premətʃə(r)lɪ]过早地，贸然地, a man-made uterus [ˈju:tərəs] 子宫 would help. These days, in rich countries, premature birth is the main cause of infant [ˈɪnfənt ]婴儿 mortality[mɔ:ˈtæləti]死亡率. A baby born at 23 weeks—just over half way through a normal pregnancy—has a fighting 微小但值得一搏的机会chance of survival. But underdeveloped未充分发育的 lungs struggle to cope with breathing air. External外部的 pumps泵 used to circulate（使）循环; （使）流通 blood impose potentially fatal[ˈfeɪtl]致命的，攸关的 stresses on tiny hearts. Those that do pull through are often left with lifelong problems that range from brain damage to blindness. In a paper just published in Nature Communications, a team of doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, led by Alan Flake, describe an artificial womb[wu:m]子宫 that, they hope, could improve things dramatically, boosting the survival rate of the most premature babies while reducing the chance of lasting disabilities. The device, which looks a bit like a high-tech jiffy [ˈdʒɪfi]瞬间 bag, is designed to mimic模仿 a real womb as closely as possible (see picture above, of a fetus['fi:təs]胎儿 after 28 days in the artificial womb). The fetus—a lamb in the team’s trials—is surrounded in a substitute代替 for the amniotic fluid[ˌæmnɪ'əʊtɪk ˈflu:ɪd]羊水 that keeps the animal’s lungs filled with liquid in a real uterus. Once the fetus is placed inside the bag it is sealed, to prevent germs微生物，病菌 entering. The cannul[ˈkænjʊlə]插管 as which carry blood away to be recharged with oxygen and nutrients are inserted [ɪnˈsɜ:t]插入 into the animal’s umbilical cord [ʌmˌbɪlɪkl ˈkɔ:d]脐带 , and the tubing in the oxygen-exchange system is short, which lets the researchers dispense [disˈpens]免除 with pumps entirely. Instead, they rely on the animal’s own heart to push blood around the system. The results are impressive. The artificial womb kept premature lambs alive for four weeks, which is longer than any previous attempt. (The researchers say they could have carried on for longer still, had their trial protocols [p'rəʊtəkɒl] 科学实验报告（或计划） not forbidden it.) The lambs developed normally, growing wool and moving around as they would in a natural womb. When Dr Flake’s team subsequently [ˈsʌbsɪkwəntli]随后 dissected[dɪˈsekt]解剖; 仔细分析 them, they found no evidence of the strokes that sometimes afflict使受痛苦; 折磨 premature babies in conventional传统的 incubators[ˈɪŋkjubeɪtə(r)]孵化器; （用于放置早产婴儿的）恒温箱 . The aim is to produce a system that could help human babies born at 23 weeks, which is currently the lower limit of viability[ˌvaɪə'bɪlətɪ]生存能力 (between a third and half of such babies survive, and even that requires heroic [həˈrəʊɪk]英勇的 efforts). It will be a while, though, before the technology arrives in hospitals. For one thing, the parallels['pærəlel]类似（点） between sheep and people are not perfect. Human fetuses at a similar stage阶段 of gestation[dʒeˈsteɪʃn]怀孕期 are only about a third of the size of lambs, so the equipment will have to be shrunk收缩 commensurately[kəˈmenʃərətli]相应的. And any procedure applied to such delicate [ˈdelɪkət]纤弱的 patients will require a lot of proving before regulators监管者 give the go-ahead. Treating mothers at risk of premature birth with steroids[ˈsterɔɪd]类固醇, for instance, helps prepare their babies’ lungs for breathing air, and is now routine. But it took more than 20 years of tests and research before that discovery was deemed认为，相信 robust[rəʊˈbʌst]精力充沛的; 坚定的 enough to make its way into hospitals. 1.You're beautiful----James Blunt